Date: June_12_2004
Title: Success and Happiness in Life, Part 2
Category: Good Conduct
Duration: 9 min., 7 seconds
Date Given: June 11, 2004
Given by: Bodhinatha

In summarizing the topic of the purusharthas, four goals of life and their relationship to success, we can clearly see two important points.

Firstly, Hinduism is quite concerned about being successful in life and that its goals of wealth and love are the popular definition of success.

Secondly, Hinduism gives us guidelines to pursue this success according to dharma in a virtuous and honest manner.

In making this second point, what we are saying is that our initial definition of success needs to be expanded beyond career and family, wealth and love, to include a person's character.

Parents, of course, want their children to bring honor to the family name and for them to be pillars of their community and *have* unblemished character. Good conduct and good character are not taught in our secular schools. Therefore, the natural place to learn about this is in the children's class on Hinduism. Said another way, academic studies teach us to read and write. But religious studies teach us what to read and what to write, which is clearly equally important. It is interesting to know that one of the reactions in the aftermath of the major corporate scandals in the United States, such as Enron and Worldcom is that US business schools have added new courses in ethics to fill the obvious gap in the previous approach to business education.

Good conduct is the foundation of all other practices in Hinduism. It begins with overcoming basic instinctive patterns, such as the tendencies to become angry and hurtful. The helpful list of these tendencies, as we know, is contained in the ethical classical restraints called yamas which are non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, divine conduct, patience, steadfastness, compassion, honesty, moderate appetite and purity. This naturally leads to a second set of practices, which are called the niyamas, and are of the nature of religious observances - remorse, contentment, giving, faith, worship of the Lord, scriptural listening, cognition, sacred vows, recitation and austerity. Together, the yamas and niyamas comprise Hinduism's code of conduct. Observing these twenty restraints and religious practices builds good character. Tiruvalluvar's Tirukural has much to offer in this regard. Good conduct also includes performing one's duty to family and community, honoring holy men, respecting elders and atoning for misdeeds.

Happiness is also an important part of success and therefore our definition of success needs to be further broadened to also include the concept of being happy. Many adults are surprised that even though they have achieved the professional and family goals they thought would make them happy, they find they don' t. This is because no matter what possessions we acquire, no matter how successful we are in our lives, the closeness of our interpersonal relationships, the temporary happiness they provide eventually wanes. This is the nature of the world. As long as we are depending on the external world to make us happy, the happiness we achieve is not lasting. This, of course, can be quite discouraging, disillusioning and depressing, even leading some to commit suicide. However, if as children we learn about Hinduism's mystical approach to happiness, this knowledge can keep us, as an adult, from falling into the abyss of despair.

The Hindu perspective is that happiness is already part of our inner self and therefore we simply need to learn how to experience the part of us that is always happy. Part of ourself is our spiritual being, our atman. It is of the nature of contentment and joy. The academic studies and the Hindu practices that we pursued in our youth have the effect of refining our desires to the point where, when we are an adult, we can be a religious enough person to experience enduring happiness through three traditional approaches Hinduism gives us for connecting with our inner spiritual self.

The monistic or meditative way to find our inner happiness is to turn within in meditation, go deep into the lotus of the heart and experience our inner self, our inner light, our spiritual energy, the profound peace and contentment within us. Success in meditation makes us truly happy. Meditation, however, can require lots of training and practice to achieve success. Fortunately, there are two other methods that most Hindus find easier.

There is also the theistic way. We can come to the temple and open ourselves to the blessings of the Deities. We come in an unhappy state, receive the blessings of God and the Gods and go away uplifted and happy. Why? It is because we have connected with our inner self through external worship. We have connected with the same blissful state that can be achieved through meditation.

Meditation and worship are two ways to internalize our awareness, to move our awareness into our spiritual being. They can both produce the same result of true happiness.

There is also a third way, which is seva or service to others. Our Guru described this in an insightful and catchy statement, "If you want to attain happiness, make others happy." Isn't that nice? I really like that one.

This principle is based on the idea that quite often, we are unhappy because we are overly self-centered. We are in a selfish state of mind, concerned only about our life, our problems, our challenges. Life is not treating us fairly, we think. So, we are unhappy. What is the antidote? Do something for other people, try to make them happy and in doing so, we naturally forget about ourselves and our problems. When we see the smile on the faces of those we are helping, it brings a smile to our face as well and opens access to our inner happiness through totally forgetting about our selves.

In summary, the modern popular materialistic view of success has a narrow focus that has only the two goals of wealth and love. Traditional Hindu perspectives broaden this concept of success in very important ways. The many facets of dharma are the first ways of broadening the concept of success so that it includes ethical behavior, a sense of duty to family, community and country and the philanthropic nature that generously helps others through acts of hospitality and giving. Except in those rare cases where such values are learned at home, these perspectives on dharma need to be learned by children through a Hindu educational program that supplements their secular academic studies.

A second way in which the concept of success has been broadened is to include happiness as one of the goals and to realize that such happiness only comes from being in touch with our inner spiritual nature through pursuing the traditional practices of mediation and devotion and service, which again can be learned when we are young through participating in Hindu educational activities.

Hindus who fulfill this complete and high-minded paradigm of success will naturally be looked up to not only by their family but by their community and nation as well, as embodying the true meaning of what it means to be a successful person.

Aum Namah Sivaya.

Thank you very much. Have a wonderful phase!